UWF

In this week’s Economic Report, Dr. Rick Harper discusses his latest economic column focusing on the earnings potential of University of West Florida and Pensacola State College graduates, Florida’s latest unemployment report, and the benefit of being named a top beach.

The University of West Florida football program held its first spring practice on Wednesday, at the UWF Intramural Fields under sunny skies and temperatures in the 80s.

The players are nine student-athletes who have either transferred from other schools, or were selected from two previous tryout camps. Before the workout, Head Coach Pete Shinnick addressed the troops.

“Listen, like we’ve talked about, how we’re doing things, what’s taking place and what your role is,” said Shinnick. “We’re going to teach, we’re going to learn.”

The University of West Florida’s 14th Annual Women’s Studies Conference gets underway Monday, March 16 at the UWF Conference Center. Internationally-known activist Angela Davis will be the keynote speaker.

A guest of the UWF Women’s Studies Program, Angela Davis will visit Pensacola for two days, speaking first at Monday’s conference and Pensacola State College on March 17. Her talks will address issues of feminism, justice, and mass incarceration in her two Pensacola speeches. Both talks are open to the public, but registration is required for the talk at UWF.

First responders from the western Panhandle joined with state and federal officials Tuesday morning, for a hazardous materials exercise at the University of West Florida.

The scenario: classes were in session with about 10,000 students on the UWF campus. At around 9:00 a.m., calls go out about an explosion and or fire in Building 58: which houses chemistry, biology and research labs.

The University of West Florida has released details of two reported sexual assaults this month that allegedly took place in a residence hall room. One was reported on Jan. 7; the other reportedly occurred on Jan. 18.

Also, there were two reports of acquaintance or date sexual assault in November.

Such cases should be reported to the UWF Police Department for investigation. But, there is also an internal probe, which is required for Title IX compliance.

Police at the University of West Florida Wednesday received a report of a sexual assault, which occurred that day. As a new semester begins, new calls are going out on self-protection.

According to a nationwide analysis of colleges by the Washington Post, UWF had a total of six reported forcible sex offenses from 2010 to 2012, the latest figures available. That’s a rate of .16 offenses reported per 1,000 students.

The report also shows 207 reported sex offenses on Florida campuses during that period, with a rate of .11 per thousand students.

The Clinical Laboratory Sciences Program at the University of West Florida has been reaccredited for seven more years by National Accrediting Agency for Clinical Laboratory Science. UWF is one of only four schools in Florida with an accredited lab program.

Dr. Behan explains, "It's important to have an accredited program to meet the standards that are nationally set so that our students are doing exactly what anybody in any other state is going to do and then they are free to move to another state too."

Escambia County gets low grades in a number of quality of life issues – such as crime and health – in a new math and statistics project conducted by a group of graduate students at the University of West Florida.

The eleven “data detectives” have been spending the fall semester going through databases for information on every county in the United States – 3,108. UWF Distinguished Professor Dr. Raid Amin oversees the project – the idea for which came to him while teaching a similar course in the summer of 2010.